Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) has unveiled a 5.6% dip in profits, despite business improving recently. While pre-tax profits slipped to �244m from �258m a year earlier, IHG said conditions were "improving steadily in both the Americas and the UK".
It added the Asia Pacific region had also recovered substantially following the recent Sars scare.
But it warned trade in continental Europe remained tough - partly due to the weakness of the dollar.
Sales at the group increased to �2.16bn from �2.15bn a year earlier.
Hard times
Looking to the future, IHG said it planned to return �250m to shareholders through a share buy-back programme.
The group, which runs more than 3,400 hotels worldwide, also said it planned to sell off assets worth �800m to �1bn.
In April last year, IHG warned it was facing "some of the worst conditions the industry has ever encountered" with the group hard hit by the effects of the Iraq war, deadly Sars outbreak and weakness in the global economy.
The problems sparked a profits warning early last year, and prompted the firm to cut 800 worldwide from its 2,600-strong back office workforce.
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